What's the matter with Zach Britton?

[Tony-OH]

BTW, back to the original subject, I had nice long conversations with both Caleb Joeseph and Zach Britton yesterday and I have more in a blog entry soon. After these talks, I have no concerns at all and in fact, I'm impressed by what Britton is doing right now.

[Tony-OH]

Britton might not breeze through Bowie without blinking, but I'd attribute at least a little bit of his mildly rocky start to trying to embrace and implement the changeup. That's a very important piece to his future puzzle.

I'll have more on this very fact soon. But you are right on the mark.

[LookinUp]

BTW, back to the original subject, I had nice long conversations with both Caleb Joeseph and Zach Britton yesterday and I have more in a blog entry soon. After these talks, I have no concerns at all and in fact, I'm impressed by what Britton is doing right now.

Off topic, but did you talk to Joseph about his offensive numbers at all? Slow start for him.

[Tony-OH]

Off topic, but did you talk to Joseph about his offensive numbers at all? Slow start for him.

Yep, and he's very frustrated to say the least. He's working his hands off, almost literally, taking extra BP and working in the cage. He says he feels good, but he's in a funk unlike anything he's ever been in before so he's it's a bit frustrating for him.

He looked bad last night weakly grounding out to the right side of the field in all of his at bats last night.

He hustled his butt off down the line every time though making a few plays close. His heart and desire is in the right place so hopefully he'll work his way out of it. The Richmond pitchers last night had some good sink so they were getting a lot of ground outs, not just Joseph but he didn't get good wood on the ball at all last night.

[taygre]

Perhaps, but I'd rather give up a single than a homer. I agree with your point about missing bats but you'll have a hard time convincing anyone but our new friend here that being a flyball pitcher is better than a groundball pitcher.

Tony.

NOBODY said a flyball pitcher is better than a groundball pitcher. Just that you can get them out many ways and if your go/ao is heavy towards flyballs, you can't just dismiss a successful flyball pitcher. Especially if he can get some K's. I think most people here think that every flyball is hit 375 against the wall. You have to take into account that pop ups and weak flyballs are in there as well.

[Stotle]

Perhaps, but I'd rather give up a single than a homer. I agree with your point about missing bats but you'll have a hard time convincing anyone but our new friend here that being a flyball pitcher is better than a groundball pitcher.

Wouldn't want to. Groundball pitcher is definitely better. But I prefer someone with a 45% GB rate and 9 SO/9 to someone with a 50% GB rate and 5 SO/9.

Unless, of course, you can get Chien-Ming Wang production (which tends to be the exception).

[Stotle]

Britton might not breeze through Bowie without blinking, but I'd attribute at least a little bit of his mildly rocky start to trying to embrace and implement the changeup. That's a very important piece to his future puzzle.

Yeah. I was nervous when I saw the quote (may have been one of these video interviews posted around here) that one of his coaches hinted he should just go back to doing what he did last year. He definitely needs the CH, so it's great he's working on it, regardless of results so far.

[Stotle]

No he's not, because no one here is saying that a being a ground ball pitcher is the only thing that is important. I know where Stotle is coming from and I know his reservations about Britton. I also know that he hasn't seen Britton throw live in the last two years and if he did, he's probably have a different take. He's a good enough evaluator that if he saw Britton's stuff, he'd know why scouts love him now and why he's starting to get that top prospect love from BA.

I lot of it has to do with his heavy sinker/slider combo and his ability to induce groundballs, but it also has to do with the fact that he started to miss bats the last few seasons.

I'm sure I would. Hoping to catch a game in June.

[Tony-OH]

Wouldn't want to. Groundball pitcher is definitely better. But I prefer someone with a 45% GB rate and 9 SO/9 to someone with a 50% GB rate and 5 SO/9.

Unless, of course, you can get Chien-Ming Wang production (which tends to be the exception).

I certainly agree...

[Tony-OH]

Tony.

NOBODY said a flyball pitcher is better than a groundball pitcher. Just that you can get them out many ways and if your go/ao is heavy towards flyballs, you can't just dismiss a successful flyball pitcher. Especially if he can get some K's. I think most people here think that every flyball is hit 375 against the wall. You have to take into account that pop ups and weak flyballs are in there as well.

I guess it has more to do with the stuff. If the guy is a 90 MPH righthander with average offspeed stuff and he's a heavy flyball pitcher then I'm going to have concerns, regardless of the numbers he's putting up in the minor leagues especially if it's Double-A and below.